That's kind of hard to stomach, and that in itself could be the cost of another SFH in my area.I also just despise paying high interest in general, so admittedly part of my reason for considering paying down the new mortgage is for peace of mind.

Think of it as starting a relationship on the right foot – honesty goes a long way!

One last advice I can give you is that MORE is not better, choose low maintenance high demand locations and the rest will fall into place.

You need to do this stuff because it's too easy for tenants or potential buyers to neglect the water bill, and the Detroit Water and Sewer is high.

Combined this leads to high cost of leveraged purchases. 

.- Machine learning models are helping to reduce risks.- Reverse migration to Rust Belt is occurring based on affordability issues elsewhere.- Scatter site is a defensive asset offering a lot of optionality.- Market conditions are challenging for scatter site hold unless you are underwriting a 10-year hold.- Setting up operations for SFR from scratch is very difficult.- One investor is buying at cap rates in 5s or 6s.

This rise in rates is partly aimed at controlling inflation but has also made borrowing more expensive, reducing purchasing power.Consequently, money is effectively worth less due to inflation, meaning more is needed to purchase the same goods and services as before.

prices and rates are high and there is lots of competition for deals, both on and off market. 

High paying jobs and these personnel will be looking for nice rentals.

I'd also highly advise against ever renting to anyone that has the intention of doing STR arbitrage.